Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-11-17
uBIOrITOrs ISRAELITEs.
Their Adaptability to All Climates and Con
ditionS.


Their Adaptability to All Climates and Con-
ditions.
It has been frequently remarked, says
the Jewish World, that the Jewish race
has wonderful power of adaptation to
all climates. Jews are found in all parts
of the globe, ard seem to possess a re-
markable facultyfor standardization, even
under the most unfavorable Circumstance
es. Mesopotamia is considered the mother
country of the Abrahamic family, as well
as the cradle of the human race. Some
years ago small colony of Jews were
found in the ancient city of Seminar, in
the south of Mesopotamia, and in the
vicinity of ancient Babylon. Of the
seventy families composing the colony,
one claimed to be descended from King
Joachim, the rest from the house of
Levi. A colony of Jews appear to have
settled In China about the beginning of
the third century of the Christian era,
uuder the dynasty of Ham. In 1904,
Father Gouzani. Roman Catholic mis-
sionary found seven Jewish families near
Pekin.
In 1856 Portuguese Jew of Amster
dam, named De Pavia, discovered sect
of Jews in Cochin, China. According to
a tradition preserved among them, they
were descended from a tribe of Jews who
had Quilted Palestine on the destruction
of the second temple. From their long
residence in Cochin they had become
com pletely bTonzed. These are not the
same as the Malabar Jews. The Jewish
traveller, Benjamin, sometimes called Ben
iamin the Second, discovered a colony Of
Jews, evidently of Persian origin, in Hin
doostan. They were known as Babylon
ian Jews" on account of their having
migrated from Babylonia. They observ-
ed tbs essential rites of Judaism, and
strictly avoided intermarriage with other
sects. In the beginning of the sixteenth
century a Jewish colony settled in Cay
enne, in the West Indies, one of the
most inhtsp1table climates in South
| America.
| Cayenne was subsequently conquered
by the French, who made it a penal set
| Element, and the Jewish colony was forced
to retire to Surinam. Notwithstanding
frequent prosecutions Jews are still found
in Persia, more especially to the south of
| the Caspian sea, where the soil is very
fertile, but the climate very unhealthy.
| The principal city is Belprosh, where
about $50 families reside in almost com
plete isolation. They trade with their
brethren in Great Tartary, and are en-
gagged in the wool and silk trade or in the
sale of citrons. They, too, trace their
origin from the Babylen1an captivity,
| for, according to tradition still possess
| ed among them, their ancestors settled
| in Persia in the time Nebuchadnezzar,
and did not respond to the appeal of
Ezra to return to Palestine. Their mode
of life resembles that of the Persian in
general. They hold the beard in high es-
TEEN and wear long flowing robes. They
have several synagogues and obtain
scrolls of the law from Bagdad. The
celebrated African traveller, Mungo Park,
| found colony Of Jewish families in the
heart of Africa, about eight hundred
miles from the coast. It is, no doubt, this
popularity eff the Jewish race which in
duced a French writer on "Medical Ge-
ograpY" TO express the opinion that S'it
is questionable whether the crossing of
human varieties confers on the issue con
slant advantages in relation to the
| species, for the Jewish race seems IN a
wonderful manner capable of adapting
itself to every change of climate, while
| othess are scarcely able TO bear the least
change."
The Jew is found in every part OF the
world; in Europe, from Norway to Glib
raltar; in Africa, from Algiers to the
Cape Of Good Hope; in Asia, from Coch-
in to the Caucasus; from Jaffa to Pekin.
He has peopled Australia, and has given
proof of his powers of acclimatizat1on
under the tropics, where people OF Euro
pean origin have constantly failed to
perpetuate Themselves.